Depression, suicidal tendency on rise among state youngsters

Bhopal, Aug. 13 -- Increasing suicidal tendency among the youth has stumped even the experts.

On an average 15-20 youngsters turn up to seek the medical counseling at Gandhi Medical College (GMC) every month after several failed attempts to commit suicide.

Unsuccessful relationships or failure in life are not the only reasons driving youths to take the extreme step.

Seemingly inconsequential things can also trigger depression and the subsequent urge to end one's life, claim experts.

In today's world, when there is cut-throat competition for jobs and tremendous peer and parental pressure to perform well, often even petty things can affect the youngsters' psyche.

Recently, a 23-year-old man came to the psychiatry department of GMC for consultation.

He attempted suicide just because his mother taunted him about his unemployment in-front of several people.

Head of psychiatric department, Gandhi Medical College (GMC), Dr RN Sahu said suicide cases were the outcome of depression.

He further said in the last decade there has been tremendous rise in the rate of suicide cases.

In more than 95% cases, the person has a history of psychiatric disorder, he added.

Sahu deals with 15-20 cases of suicide bids on a monthly basis and most of the patients are youngsters.

For the past few months, the department was doing research on depression and suicide.

More than 500 people (mostly in the age group of 15 to 25) suffering from various mental disorders were included.

The research has revealed that depression gives rise to most mental disorders.

He further said the main reason behind rise in suicide cases in the state were disintegration in social, moral and ethical values.

He cited a study that claimed that suicide attempts were more common among woman compared to men.

Dr Sahu further said prevalence of drug abuse among youth was another reason behind rising depression.

"Enormous increase in unemployment is also responsible for depression among youths. Due to commercialisation the quality of education has gone down due to which students do not get jobs despite having degrees leading to depression," said Dr Sahu.